1. Field of the Invention
The field of the present invention generally relates to devices that aid a practitioner in performing efficient and safe venipuncture for starting intravenous solutions and/or blood draws.
2. Description of the Background
A common medical procedure is the insertion of a surgical cannula or syringe needle into a blood vessel or artery of a patient to obtain a blood sample, deliver a drug, or to perform diagnostic tests. In the insertion of a needle into a vein, the needle is positioned directly over the selected vein at an angle that is selected to avoid pushing the needle completely through the vein, while at the same time positioning the needle so that fluids may be delivered to or blood removed from the patient.
In performing a venipuncture, the medical professional always seeks to accomplish the task of inserting the needle on the first trial. However, the medical practitioner is routinely confronted with difficulties in obtaining venous access to patients. In some circumstances, the practitioner will miss the vein with the needle, resulting in an unsightly mark and a painful injury for the patient. One of the common causes of poor venous access is vein instability where veins roll away from the needle. In other circumstances, the practitioner may also have a difficult time in seeing the vein.
While tools in the prior art have attempted to address this problem, the solutions have all proved unsatisfactory for a variety of reasons. Some pieces of prior art (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 3,324,854) that are designed to facilitate the insertion of a hypodermic syringe needle employ an apparatus that is attached to the body of the syringe. Such tools are limited in their applicability by the mechanism by which they attach to the syringe body. Other prior art devices (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,415,647) are designed to allow the medical practitioner to immobilize veins by pinching the skin surface around the vein. Such procedures take time to execute and slow down the medical practitioner. Furthermore, the device itself may occlude the vein from the medical professional's sight, thereby potentially making venipuncture more difficult.
Thus, there has been a long standing need in the medical field for a vein stabilizer that is adaptable to various vein and skin types while at the same time not requiring specialized techniques to be employed. Such a vein stabilizer would also preferably accentuate the vein so that the medical practitioner would be able to obtain venous access reliably and efficiently. The present invention addresses these needs.